Monday, April 26, 2010

Book Review: Firefly Lane

The April book club selection for the blogger book club was Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah. I read this book back in October so my memory of the book is a bit foggy. I will sometimes re-read a book if a book I've read gets chosen for a book club, but this book just did not warrant a re-read. I have to really like a book to re-read it, or the story line needs to be complex enough that a re-read will help me understand the story a little better. That was not the case for this book. It was a light, easy read, but not a book I would highly recommend. I think I am kind of in the minority on that. Many people had raved about the book and some of you noticed it on the side bar of my blog and commented that you really loved this book. It fell a bit flat for me.

In Firefly Lane we meet two best friend - Kate and Tully. Kate comes from a loving middle class family, Tully was raised by a mother who was a bit of a train wreck so sort of becomes an extension of Kate's family. The book follows their friendship as the two women grow and mature. The two women choose completely different paths in like; Kate chooses love over her career and Tully chooses her career over love.

I tend to love books that examine the friendship between women, but parts of this book just annoyed me and to be quite honest - pissed me off. I hated how Tully swept onto the scene and drove a wedge between Kate and her teenage daughter by being the 'cool aunt'. If Tully was truly Kate's best friend, she wouldn't have caused even more problems during the tenuous teenage years. I know that none of my best friends would undermine my parenting choices and rules.

If you'd like to hear another person's perspective on this book, click over to Emily's blog. She'll also be posting her review today! Additionally, tomorrow we'll both be posting about the "Music of Your Life". Each section of Firefly Lane was named after a song that Tully & Kate were loving at that time. So tomorrow I'll be sharing a selection of songs that bring me back to certain phases of my life.

Have you read this book? If so, did you like it more than I did? What are you all reading these days?

15 comments:

I haven't read the book yet... it's on my "to be read" shelf from a book swap I did last summer. How pathetic is that!? I've heard reviews similar to the one you've given it which is why it keeps getting pushed further down the TBR stack.

That is to bad you did not care for this. My whole book club loved it. I cried at the end. For me it was sort of personal so that could be why I really enjoyed it. Can't wait to read more of her books.

I haven't read this book. Wow, shocker. ;) But I remember when I was looking into buying books for my week off back in March - I think I purused teh back of this book! Glad I didn't purchse it! The Sunflower was a much much better read!

I'm not reading anything currently. :( But I like to "read vicariously" (if that's possible) through your book reviews!

I need to get back into the reading kick, for sure. Also, wanted to let you know that we rented and watched Everybody's Fine last night via your mention of it. It was good, but a wee depressing. Hope you had a fab weekend!

I agree about the film "Everybody's Fine" It was good but sort of a downer. I haven't read this book nor do I plan to, but this weekend we are renting the movie "Precious" which I understand is also depressing! I guess we'll have to break that mold soon! Have a super week!

I did really like this book in the end, but I definitely understand why it annoyed you, as I definitely was annoyed at different points reading it. At the same time, it definitely got my attention and I like the examination of the friendship, and the mother/daughter relationships. The things that pissed me off were very true to life, so I can't fault her for that. The cool aunt thing pissed me off too though...if I were Kate I probably would not have been friends with Tully haha

I wasn't a fan of Tully's sweepin gestures either. Though, she never did learn how to be a mom from her own, but one would think common sense would mean do not try to parent another person's child! She was sooooo freaking selfish as well. But Kate was also waay too submissive and didn't speak enough for herself. I cried like a baby in my bed during the ending though.

I think it sounds interesting, and its the type of book I tend to enjoy. But I'm sorry to hear that it wasn't one you enjoyed. Hopefully your next book club book will be one you enjoy and one you haven't read yet!

I did read this book. I had been "adminring" it for months and then it popped up on Nory's shelf so I borrowed it and read it. Why did I read the whole darn thing? I thought something might happen. Ugh. This is not a fave. I found the whole thing contrived, very long, and with a flat rendering of both main characters in spite of all the time and space that was used to write it. I surely wouldn't dis the opinions of those who loved it. But I totally agree with you, lisa - not worth a second read.

About Lisa

Hi, I'm Lisa! Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'm a 30-something living in Minneapolis, MN which is a city I adore. I have many loves but some that top the list are running, reading, traveling and all things French.